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Refresh 2
simply 'making mention' and 'thanking god for...'
From 'Refresh 1': When our prayers are ‘refocused’ on God Himself being “not way out there but instead immediately present to our current situation and more than willing to turn the mundane…sacred”….then, “how we see our circumstances changes dramatically…and so does our prayer!”
Since He very much wants to settle in with us as we go through each day…and he knows that we are not, generally speaking, accustomed to that kind of personal, near-at-hand care and support, he draws us into some super easy and effective ways to make our ongoing prayer-conversation with him come to life and become in time an everyday-natural thing.
The point 'in a nutshell'
"Quick Release Prayer’: “Lord, I hand over to your loving care my dear friend/spouse/child/parent /new acquaintance, ___(name)___. Bless and watch over them right now. Thanks for all you are about to do for them.”
When time won’t allow more, take just a few seconds to ‘mention’ those you care about to Him. Be thankful for them and for how he is already blessing them in that moment. And then conclude, “So be it!” (“Amen!” translated)
This silent-mental or whispered-verbal praying trusts he cares…and looks to him to weave together our lives and experiences and circumstances…so that ‘all things can be worked together for his ultimately good purpose’…even in a too often not-good world. This is something only He can handle due to the complexity and uncertainty that inevitably comes with living in this hurt-full age. (See Rom 8:28 and 31 to 39)
Jeremiah 29:11 assures us: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “...plans to give you hope and a future.” What might happen if we joined our prayers to His plans to bless our loved ones? Could these simple 'quick release' prayers really bring 'hope' ("an expectation of good") into the challenges they face and give them a vision of an 'even better' future He wants them to have? Yes! He plans on it and we can count on it!
Getting in the habit
Getting started with something, especially if it is ‘all new’ to you, is never easy. And then there is the “old habits die hard” thing that plagues all of us. So, He would like you to begin your journey to becoming his 'prayer partner' with a practice that is available to everyone and easy to keep up. Truthfully, this should be where we all start our prayer day, whether we are ‘just beginners’ or used to doing a 'running conversation with God' all day long.
Paul writes to the Jesus followers at Thessalonica, Greece: "We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers." (1 Thessalonians 1:2) This "mentioning you in our prayers" and "thanking God for you" can be as quick and precise as...quietly in your own heart and mind...placing those you know or anyone that happens to come to mind into His capable hands and just being thankful for how He is blessing them 'in that moment.' Your prayer automatically assumes that the real answer to our needs is always God Himself showing up in our circumstances and that your only 'task' is to release us and our situation (however vague the details are to you) into His control for His loving purposes.
Karen came across this ‘quick release’ type of prayer while she was in college. She struggled to find time to set aside her day and concentrate on praying for everyone she cared about. She knew it was never going to be easy but could not shake the Spirit’s prompting to ‘just do it anyway.’
Then Paul’s words came to her as if he was standing right next to her: “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.” That one word, “mentioning,” stuck with her…just mentioning them to God?! She decided to experiment with quick “bullet prayers” (her name for them) that she could send off ‘in between’…as she was moving from one priority to the next ‘have to do’ part of her schedule.
Within a few weeks (and sometimes just days), she was hearing from friend after friend about "all the new things God is doing in my life." By the end of the semester, she said she was ‘in awe’ and ‘amazed’ by all the good that had come from her prayer experiment. She pointed out that all she did was mention to God in short bursts of thanksgiving the people she knew (some not very well) as she hurried from class to class.
This 'no frills' practice of simply calling on God's gracious help for friends, family, mere acquaintances and yourself(!) can easily become a daily habit. Give it a try and see what happens. Again, please do not underestimate what you can contribute to God's plan to restore us all to living in His blessing presence and living out His good 'future plans' for us through this, at first glance, overly simple prayer practice.
“P.S.” You can come back to this ‘quick and easy’ way of praying at any time…we all do!
“Lord, I hand over to your loving care my dear friend/spouse/child/parent/new acquaintance, ___(name)___. Bless and watch over them right now. Thanks for all you are about to do for them.”
There’s more…
Bonus blessings that come our way with ‘quick release’ praying…
As the Spirit’s love for us all moves in each of us and motivates us ever more frequently to pray for others, we will find a mental-emotional habit forming that (1) keeps us ‘at rest in God’s Presence’ throughout our current day, and that (2) gradually transforms our way of seeing and dealing with each new day.
Paul encourages his good friends at Philippi, Greece (Phil 4:5b-7):
The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds….
He is describing that inner experience of the Spirit’s ‘nearness’ that so many of us have come to know is ‘true for us also.’
“The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition…”
More often than we may consciously recognize, the Spirit draws close and draws out our
anxious thoughts about things big and small, thereby ‘calling us’ to prayer and even some
intense 'calling out to God' on occasion.
"…with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
As we realize how intensely invested He is in our ‘personal needs of the moment,’ we find
we are overcome with gratitude for how much he cares about our maybe not-so-major ‘stuff
and things’ and about every little detail of our future that concerns us so deeply. Thanking
Him for kindly watching out for us so faithfully just overflows and returns to our thoughts and
lips over and over again…another ‘quick release’ way to pray your way through your day.
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds”
And after all the “anxious” praying and petitioning and presenting of requests before God
has run its course…then comes the best part!
We find ourselves surrounded by the beyond description or explanation, peace-full
presence of God's Spirit of Love. We have been led by the hand into a place of well-being
(‘shalom’) and we discover that He has taken over guarding our hearts and minds from
stressing out about what may come by giving us a very real and strong confidence in
His ability to watch over and manage everything and most especially the things we just
shared with him.
The fact that we have not yet seen the answers to our prayers ‘in the flesh’ does not cause
us to worry yet again, because we trust Jesus’ Spirit to be bringing God’s best into our
broken and hurt-full world, ‘no matter what’!
reflecting on all this
When and where did you experience this kind of ‘quick release’ and ‘making mention’ praying in your past or recent experience of interacting with God?
(By the way, you may have been praying like this without knowing it. Two examples: we have all had our moments when we turned to God as a last resort and called out to Him in short bursts of desperation prayer. Also, we may or may not have attached words to those self-aware moments when we were ‘really, really thankful for….’ but our loving Father understood our intent and our heart, for sure.)
As you try out inserting short 'mentions' and 'thanks to God' into your day, what do you foresee being ‘new’ and ‘different’ for you and your loved ones?
What personal challenges do you expect when you try to make these ways of praying a naturally reoccurring part of your day?
How would you like the Spirit to help you with those? (Just ask! He loves doing prayer with us!)
Then, name some ways you and He found to manage these.
After this short introduction, what are the advantages to “bullet praying” your way through your day?
And…
Please feel free to share your story of how He encouraged and inspired you through praying this way. "One day when I was confronted with…" Just click on either the “Contact Us" link above or the "Subscribe" link below. We would love to hear your story!
Capture the possibilities...
- Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me! All you who are weary and burdened
And I will give you [keep on giving you!] rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
- Jesus, seeing how 'harassed' and 'without a shepherd' the crowds were, encouraged them to entrust every part of their life to him and to 'yoke up' with him so that 'we' together can make life's journey 'easy' and 'light'. He asks us
(1) to keep on keeping on coming to him, 'personally'
(2) and to never stop releasing into his capable hands all our
burdens, most especially what makes us 'bone tired'
(3) and from these two prayer practices find with him a place of
'rest for our souls' and a way into a less stressed life .
Jesus recognizes that we are ‘trust challenged’ as (very often!) fear-full humans…and that finding a ‘safe person’ (gentle, humble) in this life, someone that you can always trust to truly care (from the heart, no pretense) can be challenging. He invites us close to him, a 'gentle and humble in heart' teacher, precisely because he is that safe person, the one you can trust – wherever you are in life – to not only stay with you but even carry you and your loved ones through whatever comes your way.
This week and next, let's be determined to call to him often and entrust to him each new (or old!) 'burden' as it comes to us...and let's expect to be taken into a restful, 'light and easy' place with him over and over again...even as this unsettled and deeply troubling world rolls on around us...or maybe tries to roll over us!
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
Jesus has asked us to insert into our week these three 'possibilities' – coming to him, giving everything over to him, finding a de-stressed place with him – as many times as we can. But let me share a word of encouragement from my experience of with this: just try something and expect him to use your stuttering efforts and 'failures' to pull you forward into prayer-walking your week at his side. My frequent ‘note to self’ became “…all things are possible with God!” (Mark 10:27b)
Let's capture the possibilities...again and again and again....
"An Approachable God" What Jesus in reality wants from you
In Matthew 11:25-30, Jesus' calls us close to himself so that we can join him in 'doing life together' (God's 'goal' with us as described in the Grace-Full Post, "When God dreams... What God really wants from us"). But...what does that 'life together' mean when you 'flesh it out' in the 'real world'?
Please consider the following as a way to start unpacking this very 'revealing of Jesus and his ways' Bible passage.
- What makes Jesus so approachable and worth your time for the long haul?
- How does he see your life changing for the better once you join him in exploring this "easy" and "light" way of carrying life's not-so-light "burdens"?
- And what can you expect from taking on traveling with him instead of trying to bring off a self-controlled ethical/religious life on your own?
- And finally, how can he possibly make all this happen 'even for me'?